Protests against the Sri Lankan Civil War

Between 2008 and 2009, major protests against the Sri Lankan Civil War, also referred to as the Tamil protests by international media outlets, took place in several countries across the world, urging national and world leaders and organisations to take action on bringing a unanimous cease fire to the Sri Lankan Civil War, which had taken place for over twenty-five years. The protests took several forms, including human chains, demonstrations, rallies, hunger strikes, and self-immolation.[1]

The first protests occurred in several cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 2008 where organisations, politicians, celebrities and student associations raised their requests for the Government of India to intervene and stop the civil war in Sri Lanka. Following the Tamil Nadu protests, protests began to take place in other cities across the globe. The goal of the protests was to persuade organisations and political leaders to intervene in the Sri Lankan Civil War and establish a ceasefire, appeal to humanitarian aid organisations to provide resources to the affected areas of Sri Lanka, and help remove the LTTE from any list of terrorist organisations. After the civil war was ended on 18 May 2009, protests continued in a few countries, urging governments to undertake a war-crimes inspection in Sri Lanka.

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In Australia, several protests took place in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Over a thousand protested during Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama's visit to Australia on 14 October 2008.[29] The protest took place in Canberra outside the National Press Club. The protesters accused the Sri Lankan government alleging attack on civilians and the prevention of aid by the United Nations reaching affected areas. In response to the protests, Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith stated that he raised the concern of the violence amid the civil war. He also assured that Australia insists that military means will not solve the problem and that a political solution can only result in the ending of the war.

After several local demonstrations, mostly in Sydney, larger protests were organised within Australia during the month of April 2009, with the most significant one being the non-stop protest in Sydney. As of April, 60 rallies and protests had occurred across Australia.[30] On 11 April, three Australian protesters began hunger strikes, like those concurrently occurring in Ottawa and London. The hunger strike ended on 17 April.[31][32] On 17 April, a "March for Peace" took place in Canberra.[33] On 13 April, protests took place in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's residence in Sydney, urging him to call an immediate ceasefire.[34] Several hundred protesters rallied in North Sydney urging Joe Hockey, member for North Sydney, to take the concerns of his constituents to the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Similar protests occurred on 22 April, as over 600 protesters converged outside Julie Owens's office to voice their frustration at the lack of action by the Australian Labour Government in preventing thousands of Tamil civilians from allegedly being killed by the Sri Lankan Military.[35] A "Boycott Sri Lankan Products" campaign was launched in Sydney during the last week of April. The demonstrations occurred with a few roads being closed down to make way. The protests were paused for ANZAC Day on 25 April.[36]

The first notable demonstration took place on 28 January 2009 in front of the Consulate of Sri Lanka in Toronto involving a few hundred people. The following day, several thousands gathered in front of the Consulate of the United States in Toronto to appeal to the Government of the United States to take action on ending the civil war. A 5-kilometre (3.1-mile) human chain of several thousands of citizens took place the next day along major streets in Downtown Toronto. There after, demonstrations began to escalate in size and occurred on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for sometime, until returning to continue in Toronto.

With regard to sentiments among those deceased in the war, several individuals had self immolated themselves on various days. Those who self immolated themselves were Muthukumar, Murugathasan,[37] Amaresan,[38] Pallapatti Ravi,[39] Gokularathinam, [39] Tamilvendhan, [40] Sivaprakasam,[41] Raja,[42] Ravichandran,[43] Ramu,[44] and Sivanandam.[45]

Norway had acted as a peace mediator in Sri Lanka prior to it being asked to leave by the Sri Lankan government of Rajapakse which ended the ceasefire in 2006 after alleging multiple violations by the LTTE. Pro-LTTE Tamil communities and organisations within Norway organised large protests including ones outside the Parliament of Norway Building,[46][47]Inkognitogata 18,[48] and other parts of Oslo.[49] There were also protests outside the Sri Lankan embassy where a few protesters broke into the embassy, making it the first violent movement in Tamil diaspora protests across the world. Although no one was hurt, it did cause severe damage to the Embassy of Sri Lanka.[50] Hundreds of Tamils gathered in Bergen, organising a 48-hour famine protest starting on 20 November.[51]

The largest of the protests occurred in the United Kingdom. Protests were organised by the British Tamil Forum, a prominent diaspora organisation and a key association organising of the event, aiming to encourage British intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War. The first protest began on 18 January 2009 with around 9000 British Tamils in front of 10 Downing Street in London, participating in a mass vigil.[52] A larger scaled protest occurred on 31 January 2009 which attracted a crowd of around 150,000 Tamils.[53]

On 6 April an ongoing protest began, which continued into the middle of May. The next major protest took place on 11 April 2009, which attracted more than 200,000 Tamils.[54] While the protesters diminished in numbers later on in the day, a number of people took place in non-stop protests on the streets, similar to protests that occurred in Canada.[55] Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswaran Subramanyam, went on hunger strike.[56] On 11 May, the protesters in Parliament Square "spilled through police lines" causing roads to be blocked, with the protesters "noisy but peaceful."[57] Protests had left the City of London Police with a cost £7.1 million.[58] The British Human Rights Act grants everyone the right to gather with others and protest.[59]

In October 2009 the Daily Mail falsely claimed that a police surveillance team had been watching the two hunger strikers discovered that Subramanyam had been secretly eating McDonald's sandwiches with the help of clandestine deliveries.[58] Subramaniyan denied the Daily Mail's allegations, calling them "entirely baseless" and a "conspiracy to defame the Tamil struggle".[60][61] He stated that he also had medical proof.[60] The police refused to discuss the allegations.[60][61] The false claims were widely reported in the Sri Lankan media, allowing the Sri Lankan government and its supporters used them to condemn the Tamil protesters.[62][63][64] Subramanyam then took legal action for libel against the Daily Mail and The Sun, which had repeated the false claims. He won the settlement in June 2010.[65][66] The newspapers accepted that the claims had been "entirely false", apologised to Subramanyam and paid him £77,500 in damages.[67][68]

It was discovered that the United Kingdom sold arms to Sri Lanka worth over £13.6 million in the last three years of the conflict, contravening the 1998 Code of Conduct on Arms Exports by the European Union that restricts business with countries facing internal conflicts or with poor human rights records and a history of violating international law. Several members of parliament expressed anger at the development. Four committees in the House of Commons expressed concern in a joint statement that arms made in the United Kingdom were fired on civilians during battles in Sri Lanka. In their annual report, the cross-party committees on arms export controls recommended the government should review all arms exports to Sri Lanka following the crackdown on rebels. The MPs also questioned the government's commitment to tackling corruption and bribery and called on ministers to investigate what British-supplied military equipment was used in the campaign against the Tamils.[69][70][71]

A number of protesters, such as Jan Jananayagam of Tamils Against Genocide, reiterated to the BBC that Tamils lived under "existential threat" in North Eastern Sri Lanka, that delayed recognition of genocidal acts cost lives, and that based on its record in Rwanda, the United Nations had not proved that it alone could defend Tamil people.[72]